Vitalize
by Nocturne Weaver
Summary: It began when they were just kids. Sasori the puppet playwright and Deidara the playful child actor. They inspired her to become Konoha's greatest dancer. And as with many great celebrities, men start loving her. Pairings/etc inside; mainly DeiHina


**_Ballerina In The Sunset  
_**Chapter One

Hello! For anyone of my readers who read my message about wanting to write a story with Sasori or Deidara in it(I think in _**The Love Therapist**_ or my profile, I don't know, I forgot, but I wrote it somewhere), this is it! Except that instead of Sasori/Sakura, I decided to make it Deidara/Hinata...and I was inspired by Akatsuki/Hina fics which were GREAT and I wanted to try it for myself :P

**PAIRINGS;** Deidara, Sasori, Itachi, Gaara, Sasuke, Naruto(?) with Hinata

**Lemon/Lime**: Yes.  
**  
ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS;** All of Akatsuki (Zabuzu and Zetsu?), **OCSakura**, **OCIno  
**  
**By OCSakura & Ino**, I mean that they will be extremely, EXTREMELY bitchy and probably even hateful in this fic...so beware, Sakura/Ino fans. Not that I have anything against them both, but they seem the most potential girls to be really mean, you know?

**SOME CHARACTERS MAY GET KILLED OFF.**

Characters are more on their normal side (except the murderous part)

* * *

_It is summertime. And every summer, in the Hidden Village of Sand, a festival is held. No particular reason as to why it is held, but during the event both ninjas and commoners take a break from work for three days to enjoy the sights and activities. There are games and bull-riding contests and places where men can bet money for free prizes or a glass of beer. There are places where the children gather; the park with the playground, where colorful vendors are selling sweet iced drinks and cakes and frozen yogurt and popsicles of many fruity flavors. Then there is the place where people both old and young gather together: a large wooden theater. It opens only at night, since the daytime hours are too hot for both performers and watchers to last long. However, once the skies are void of any source of light and heat, magicians, comedians, artists and actors light up the old stage and bring the area to life with their modest but remarkable talents._

**o o o o o o o o o o**

It is a summer night. A boy is crouched nervously behind the opening curtains, peeking out now and then to spy on the large mass of people. He is eight years old, with tanned skin, large gray eyes and a lock of blond hair that falls over his left eye. This used to bug him immensely, but tonight he is grateful for the golden covering that would veil any blush that would happen to capture him. His heart is beating fast. His hands are icy with fear as his eyes are fixed on the ever-growing stream of watchers outside the stage, expecting the perfect performance from him or lashing out with weapons if he isn't doing well, he imagines. If he does do well, he hopes they would light fireworks and throw snapping gunpowder bombs and...He feels a hard hand on his shoulder and the boy looks up to meet sleepy-looking light brown eyes framed with feathery red hair.

"Relax, Deidara. You still have fifteen minutes of time before going on stage. Why don't you go to the back and have yourself a cup of water?"

"Nah. But what about you, Sasori no danna?" the blond boy asks.

"I just wish to get it over with. I can't wait to get back to the hotel. My fingers hurt from all that last-minute writing yesterday, and I still have you to deal with..."

"Haha! You tell me to do my homework immediately and not wait to do it later, but when I suggest that you don't procrastinate on your plays—"

"Shut your trap."

"...I'm nervous, danna."

"You did this twice before. You can do it again."

The fifteen minutes pass in a flash and the back of the theater is in a small flurry, with wooden puppets being placed on various sections on the floor. The boy named Deidara stands in the middle, fidgeting and staring at the curtains. He feels thin strings of warmth wrap around his limbs and joints. He looks up to meet his master's eyes from where he is standing, twenty feet off the floor.

"Don't be scared," Sasori says. "Just remember your lines and your face expressions. The rest is for me to do. Now, turn around!"

Sasori twitches a finger and Deidara is snapped around, just as the curtains are opening. The lights are dim and fog is already filling up the stage. A deep rich voice booms from the loudspeakers on the sides of the stage.

"Hello everyone! You are gathered here tonight to enjoy a new play, written and directed by none other than the great Akasuna no Sasori, starring child actor Deidara-kun and his Evil Puppet Tribe from the land of faggots and shitholes—"

Deidara giggles while people in the audience gasp or burst out in laughter. A woman pushes the speaker off the microphone and grabs the script.

"SORRY ABOUT THAT!! You heard nothing. Now, here it is! The latest play from the hottest playwright AND puppeteer of today, Akasuna no Sasori! It's starring Deidara-kun and his evil Puppet minions from the land of...land of the...-is this right?-...you know, lhow about we just skip to the play?"

Meanwhile, in the crowd, a little girl of four is sitting on her father's lap, watching Deidara's crazy stunts and clapping her hands with glee. Her hair is a dark blue-violet, her eyes an extraordinary pearl. Her unique appearance is softened by her laughter, the kind of innocent and joyous laughter that a person only hears from children that young.

The girl claps her hands again and looks up at her father with huge, eager eyes. "Daddy! That boy is so funny!"

Her father has an equally similar unique appearance, except with a stoic expression. Now he looks down at his daughter, the flesh of his cheeks rising in a rare smile.

"He certainly is!"

"And Daddy, what is his name?"

"The boy's name? I believe it to be...Deidara."

"Deidara?" The little girl's cheeks flare up for an instant. She wouldn't be forgetting that name for a long time.

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I..."

"Can you what?"

"Can I do something like...like what Deidara is doing? Can I be funny too? Can I act too?"

The man smiles again. "Of course you can, Hinata. Of course. You can do whatever you want, my baby."

"Thank you Daddy! Thank you so much!!"

The girl smiles so wide, her eyes get large, and in the brief moment of ecstasy her eyes suddenly have huge veins surrounding them. After a moment her eyes began to hurt. The veins disappear and the girl is once against concentrated on the boy named Deidara, who is now swallowing fireworks, screaming a line 'art is a bang!' and blasting large colorful explosions of smoke, sparks and flames from his rear end, cackling evilly. The little girl watches his extremely mechanical movements with great fascination, taking it as a form of dancing. After half an hour, the show is over. It is a huge success. Then the girl and her father enter backstage to meet the actor. Amongst all the other actors, she soon spots Deidara, who is receiving a pat on the head from his master.

The father clears his throat and the room quiets down. Deidara and Sasori stares at the strange man, who is also staring back at them.

"Hello, my name is Hyuga Hiashi," the man says. He smiles and pats something behind him. "My daughter, Hinata, was intrigued by your performance. She is wondering where Deidara learned acting from?"

Deidara watches the tiny fingers grasping the edge of Hyuga Hiashi's kimono. Slowly, a small head appears, then shoots back immediately. The head emerges again. Then huge lavender eyes. Deidara stares at the eyes. They look beautiful. The girl shyly stares back from behind her kimono. She attempts a small smile. Deidara immediately responds with a huge grin of his own.

Meanwhile, Sasori is walking towards the girl. He kneels down and the girl hides behind her father once more.

"Come on out, Hinata," Hiashi coaxes. "Don't be scared."

Hinata pokes her head out once more and Sasori holds out his hand.

"So your name is Hinata?"

Hinata nods.

"I am Akasuna no Sasori," says Sasori. Hinata shyly grabs one of Sasori's fingers and they shake hands. Then he looks at Deidara. The blond boy flashes his bright grin.

"I am Deidara," he announces. "You are Hyuga Hinata, un!" He grasps her hand and shakes it rigorously. Hiashi smiles.

"So you liked the performance and you want to act for yourself?" Sasori asks.

Hinata nods again.

"Hmm. Perhaps when you're older, you can come join me and Deidara. How's that?"

Hinata blushes deeply and smiles.

Sasori reaches into his pocket and pulls out a paper slip. It has a picture of Deidara all by himself, holding an umbrella. Large, bold letters are printed along the top of the paper, words she can't read yet. Across the bottom corner was a signature in dark purple ink; Sasori's signature.

"And also...why don't you watch some more of our performances? Our next one is in Konoha, in the Hidden Village of Leaves."

Hinata claps her hands together in glee."I-I live there! I be sure to see."

Sasori smiles and stands up. He faces Hiashi. "It is nice to meet you and your daughter, Hyuga Hiashi, but we must be leaving now. To prepare for our next performance. Have a nice evening."

"As with you."

Deidara waves. "Bye bye, Hinata! See you in Konoha, un!"

Hinata blushes and she and her father leaves. Sasori and Deidara both pick up their puppets and begin walking their way back to the hotel.

Once they are out of hearing distance, Deidara looks up at Sasori and grins. "Sasori no danna, are you really gonna let that girl come with us?"

"..."

Deidara squeals and jumps up and down. "She seems shy but it will be fun to have another kid in the group, un. Even if she might have cooties, un..."

"Don't be ignorant, boy. Girls don't have cooties."

"But boys don't have cooties either! They—"

"When we get to the hotel, immediately pack up your things and get ready to leave for the Leaf Village."

"Yes, sir...but danna, what about your play, un? The one called 'Parasol'? You aren't halfway done and we're performing it on the night we get to the village and—"

"Shut your trap. Stop dragging the puppet leg on the floor."

"You're just trying to change the subject!! ...Just kidding! ...May you please stop glaring at me like that...un..."

**o o o o o o o o o o**

_Deidara and Sasori traveled around Japan for years, writing and performing plays. Deidara's humor combined with Sasori's trained puppeteer's fingers attracted a large number of fans. But as Deidara grew up and changed, so did Sasori's plays. The plays were still popular, now just very depressing. But even this new burst of success wasn't able to suppress the incident that had the duo quit their jobs._

_Sasori developed a terrible case of arthritis. The only cure was to replace his swollen joints with wooden ones. He thought it would work, but as his warm flesh was changed to cold, hard wood, his quiet but affectionate heart changed along with it. It slowly formed itself a barrier like metal, with several dents here and there but nothing ever penetrating through. He hated it. So did Deidara, who thought it very unnerving when his twenty-five-years-older master continued to stay looking so young that people eventually thought they were siblings._

_And as with boys who follow the footsteps of their role models, Deidara resented the discomforting silence that spoke for his master, but also grew to be resigned from the world. However, he was like a ticking time bomb, only able to suppress the gloomy atmosphere for so long before a combustion of energy would ignite in him._

_Life seemed to have no meaning after the incident. Sasori was just like another one of the puppets he used to control: wooden, emotionless, only seeming to be able to walk and talk by Deidara's will. And like his plays, there was no happy ending in store for him. It went on this way for several years, then Deidara exploded. He ran around villages, dragging along Sasori and having them eat their depression away._

_They both would never stop thanking the day when Deidara tossed Sasori into a booth of a cheesy but comforting dark dining theater, unintentionally rediscovering a small part of their former life they've nearly forgotten about. The theater was their new escape, a place where their metal hearts would unlock and pour their true contents into the atmosphere. It was the one other thing that truly mattered to them, besides each other's company. What they never knew was that this theater would be another start of their old past. Their **old **future._

**o o o o o o o o o o **

_**EIGHTEEN YEARS LATER**_

"Now?"

"No."

"Now?"

"No."

"...Now?"

"NO."

"...How 'bout now?"

"I said NO!"

"But Danna, I'm hungry!"

Deidara finished his little clay bird models and infused them with chakra. The birds came to life and began flying around the room, searching for their target. They spotted Sasori's bright red hair almost immediately and began flying around his head, squawking wildly.

"Now? Now? Now? Now? Now?" The birds screeched, words shooting like bullets. Deidara watched the small show with glee, his amusement rising as Sasori's patience dropped.

The birds suddenly exploded into a thousand clay shards. Deidara yelled and dodged three carving knives aimed for his head. He accidentally jumped into the arms of a puppet, which spun him around, brought out a pair of paddles and began delivering a series of stinging slaps to his cheeks. Deidara threw the puppet off him and clutched his red face.

"Whatcha do that for?" he complained. "I just wanted to know when we were gonna leave for the theater!"

"Saying 'now?' ten times a minute and creating those damn birds are NOT asking when we're leaving for the theater!" Sasori yelled.

"You knew what I meant anyway, un!"

"Annoying the living shit out of me ISN'T a decipherable way of knowing the answer to a question!"

"Alright, alright! Jeez! When are we leaving for the theater, un?"

"In a minute."

"A minute? A MINUTE?! WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST—!!"

"Because you weren't asking correctly."

Deidara grabbed his hair in annoyance. Despite his maturity level, his danna could get just as annoying as a toddler sometimes.

Sasori set down his knife and admired the perfectly carved, wooden doll face in his fingers. It was beautiful, but of no use. He would create a body for it anyhow. Give it a place in his collection. Perhaps with black hair and silver eyes...

Deidara kicked the floor impatiently and huffed.

"Well, Sasori no danna, I'M LEEEAVING!!"

Deidara bounded out the door.

"Hey! Get back here and put me in my wheelchair, you fool!"

Sasori waited several moments. No reply. His face contorted in anger.

"HEY!!"

"Why can't you just walk with me to the town?? I look like a freak dragging around some twenty-year-old-forty-five-year-old in a wheelchair, un! Why do you even use a wheelchair? Your legs work just fine!" yelled the reply from outdoors.

"DEIDARAAA!!"

Deidara nervously crept back inside the tiny house and edged toward the table. Sasori's eyes were dripping lava.

Deidara gulped and grinned nervously. "I-I'll put you in your wheelchair only if you promise me you won't bite me again..."

* * *

Deidara slowly wheeled a pissed off Sasori into the old restaurant, sulking and rubbing his bitten wrist. The dinner theater had extremely dim lighting, comfy maroon sofas and dark wooden tables, situated in a half-moon around a small stage against the wall. How he loved the place. Quaint, dark and old, but still a work of art.

The two men headed to the same booth they sat in yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. It was one near the stage, with an unpleasantly large spider-shaped spot stained into the red material. They scooted into the sofa, Sasori on the left, Deidara on the right, and then simply waited, the same routine for the days and weeks and years behind.

They ordered the same dish: Spaghetti and meatballs with two garlic breads, two cheap red wines, and a burnt banana.

They divided the food in half; meatballs for Sasori, noodles for Deidara. One garlic bread and wine each. Neither touched the banana.

The lights began to dim and the two looked up from their food. A voice from the loudspeakers announced, "Welcome, everyone. Tonight's play is called, 'Her Lips'."

"Hey, that's one of your plays danna," Deidara exclaimed. "Your favorite one, un?"

"Those hairy idiots. They don't even give a disclaimer?"

"But doesn't everyone already know that it's by you and you only—"

"Shut your trap! Someone might hear."

The play was about an make-up girl who had transferred some of her soul into a puppet. She used blood to mix her puppet's lipstick and nail polish. One day, she left the doll outside to dry in the sun, and a boy happened to come across the puppet and...the actress wasn't doing very well.

Deidara heard a scoff and glanced at Sasori. He had a look of disgust on his face. He definitely loathed the terrible acting too. The play went on and on, with the actors stuttering and messing up, their movements seeming fake and stupid. Finally the play had to be canceled due to both actors forgetting their lines, and a small round of uncomfortable, scattered applause filled the embarrassingly quiet air. A series of clicks brought Deidara out of his concentration again. Sasori was now fidgeting with his finger joints, frowning immensely. He looked up and growled at Deidara.

_Uh oh_, Deidara winced. Time for a bitch fit.

"Those actors ruined my night AND my play! Damn it! Damn them!! If only my fingers weren't so freaking loud and slow! If I could, I would go up there, shove a poisoned needle straight up that puppeteer's pimply asshole, and teach those jackers how to act!!" he fumed. "Those raging bitches! If only they—!! How dare they go up there to ruin my favorite play and then steal the applause that belongs to US?! How dare they—! Why don't I just go up there and make them kiss my wooden asscheeks!! Why don't I—! ..."

Sasori never really gotten over retiring, while Deidara didn't care. Sure, everyone knew many of the greatest plays were by him. And although he wasn't one that dug for compliments or attention, the puppeteer had always loved the genuine applause and cheers he received at the end of an original show, _his and Deidara's _own performance, instead of other low-rate puppeteers practicing with sweaty, nervous kids picked off the street. To put it short, he yearned to perform again, to once more receive the applause that belonged to him.

"Let's get the hell outta here, Deidara. I've had enough of douche bags tonight." Sasori rose from his seat, grabbed his wheelchair and huffed up the stairs.

Suddenly, a panicked voice spoke over the loudspeakers.

"Hey, hey everyone, don't leave yet," the voice cried out. "To make up for the...the _little_ incident we had tonight, we decided to give another performance of a beautiful dancer, fresh from the Land of Fire..."

"Ooh, ooh, danna! Come back and let's watch!"

"Why watch? I hope that dancer trips and hurts themselves. Oh wait, I don't have to hope. They will."

"C'mon, danna. Stop being such a bastard. You'll get ugly if you make that fa-ace..."

Sasori glared at his partner. "Once we get home, I'll be roasting your ass for wasting my time!"

"Whaaat?! I just want to watch someone dance!"

The lights dimmed again and focused on a single spot on the stage. The remaining audience grew quiet and stared at the single glowing blue circle. Then slowly, a beautiful woman emerged out of the dark of the stage and walked into the bright circle of light. Her eyes were blindfolded, her hands tied up with a veil. Her hair looked immensely blue, her skin flawless and pale.

Deidara squinted his gray eyes, taking in her look. If only she would take that blindfold off her eyes, maybe he would be able to remember her face...but even if he did know her face, he would never had forgotten such natural beauty...

The woman slowly began her dance. She walked smoothly, moving her head around uncertainly, stirring up just enough movement to disturb through her flowing hair. Her silken handcuffs undid themselves and the woman began a series of graceful twirls, a dance speaking of uncertainty and mystery and arabesques to the night skies.

Deidara watched the performance, completely enchanted by her movements. He didn't check to see the look on Sasori's face, a usual habit of his. He didn't care if the old man would beat his ass half to death when he got home. His future didn't matter. What mattered was this angel and her beautiful dancing, so beautiful it seemed fake. He checked above her for any signs of a skilled puppeteer using chakra strings. Nope.

All too soon, the dance ended, stopping on a perfect note of drama and tragedy. The woman picked herself up and smiled as she heard the terrific thundering applause and screaming surrounding her. She took off her blindfold and began bowing to the side opposite of where Deidara was sitting.

Deidara was clapping his hands the hardest he could, ignoring the fact that his hand-mouths now had black-and-blue lips.

"THAT IS TRUE ART!!" He yelled. "THE FLEETING MOMENT WHEN SOMETHING IS BORN, THEN EXPLODES INTO A BEAUTIFUL ARRAY OF...of..."

Deidara choked. The woman, as well as many others, were looking at him uncertainly and giving him weird faces. But that wasn't the reason why he stopped shouting. He'd seen them. He'd seen those eyes before. Large, pearly, lavender, translucent. Where had he seen them? Then the woman smiled softly and bowed in Deidara's direction. He felt his heart jerk so hard it literally hurt.

"That was it!" screamed the relief-struck voice on the speakers. "A mystical, extravagantly beautiful, altogether indescribable dance by Hyuga!"

Deidara grinned to himself. Hyuga. He would definitely remember that name. But why was it that it sounded so familiar? The blond turned around and exited the booth. He turned to nearly run into Sasori.

"Whoa, there, danna! Why are you still here?" Deidara said. He stopped talking.

Sasori had a look of utter shock on his face, stunned into silence by the movements of the Hyuga. He was so shocked that even the constant twitching of his wooden fingers were deathly still.

Deidara snickered.

"Told you that it'll be good to stay huh? HUH? Didn't I? C'mon, danna. I'll wheel you home, since you look so mentally incapable of doing the terrible task of walking..." The blond sighed and gazed dreamily upwards.

"She is so pretty. Man. Which do you consider more to be art, Sasori no danna? Her dance or her body?"

Sasori didn't respond. Deidara grinned to himself again. His emotionless, tempered master, one who barely clapped to a play, even to a good one, was unable to speak because of a girl and her dance. It was a freaking miracle.

"So, danna, what do you think? She'll be there tomorrow?"

"_..."_

"Hello?"

"Will you shut up? I'm trying to think!"

"Heh. Think about what?"

"Hyuga. Did you ever hear it before?"

"..."

"Let's go back there tomorrow."

**o o o o o o o o o o**

Sasori sat at the dining table, clutching his hair and staring at the blocks of wood in front of him. Hyuga. Hyuga. The woman's face was so beautiful that he couldn't even remember what it looked like. The puppeteer groaned in exasperation and closed his eyes, trying ever harder to visualize the lady's features. Such beauty should be preserved forever, yet even for a master puppet-maker like him, he was scared to create an image that would ruin that beauty. After all, no artwork is perfect, it only depends on the opinion of the viewer. Wooden fingers slowly wrapped themselves around a sharp knife and a block of wood.

Hell, he would try it anyway. And if it wasn't good, well, he would burn the doll as well as himself.

* * *

**Hey everyone! A new story, mehhhhh. (:  
Sorry for the crappy ending. But it would've been like eight to nine pages long if I added enough to make a decent ending -.-" for the first chapter at least.**

**Well, hope you enjoyed it. Please review, etc. I love em :D**

**See you next chapter!**

* * *


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